Waterwatch Primary School Education
Waterwatch currently offers programs to primary and secondary teachers in the Southern ACT, as well as to interested community groups.
Programs are free, hands-on in the field activities lasting roughly one hour in length.
Classes are booked on a first come first serve basis.
Specially developed programs can be created if adequate time is available.
The below are examples of the currently available activities.
Who Cleans the Water in the Creek?
This is an excursion; a first look at the living things that thrive in both wild and tamed waterways, and is aimed at K-2. To fit in the Water section of the Sustainable Schools syllabus, ideal sites would have access to a natural or rehabilitated creek or wetland with man-made drainage system visible nearby. In the Tuggeranong area the Leinhop St bridge at upper Tuggeranong Ck is excellent, and the silt-traps behind St Clare’s and Lanyon High with a walk up to or down from Conder Wetlands are appropriate. Another suitable spot is the Gross Pollution trap and the arm of Lake Tuggeranong off Drakeford Drive at Oxley. The Waldock St dam on Mt Taylor can be easily associated with the drain along-side Waramanga, and the old dam at Cooleman Ridge will also do well.
There are poems and a story as well as bug-fishing; and the children may be asked to draw their favourite bug later. Link to pdf
Aquatic Food Webs
This one can be used before, or after or as part of a Waterwatch visit to your school. It contains games and class exercises to tweak the grey matter, for Upper Primary students. The emphasis is on the interactions of natural systems, and food webs. Link to pdf
Living Places
An Upper Primary (and Secondary) excursion to almost any kind of wetland or stream, which quickly and vividly puts the ecological health of the site into context. Each student or small team completes a survey of the site and its ecological fractions. This one pulls together elements of the water chemistry and macroinvertebrate observations that regular Waterwatch volunteers make on their routine visits to sites. It should provoke discussion, as there may be as many different scores for the site as there are observers. Link to pdf
Living Breathing Places
This package includes an excursion or in-class exercise (we bring the bugs in) and some follow-up art/science exercises, suitable for Middle to Upper Primary. The bug-fishing is always a hit with the students and is a great exercise in patient observation as well as the thrill of the chase. In the Tuggeranong area the lakes and ponds all have abundant macroinvertebrate life, and Point Hut Crossing has an interesting mixture of common and more rare invertebrates. You don’t have to go far from school to take advantage of this exercise. Link to pdf
Each year in autumn and spring the New South Wales government supports Bugasaurus Explorus the NSW Water bugs survey for schools. To find out more about this go to http://www.bugsurvey.nsw.gov.au/# where there is teacher information to encourage participation.
